It's more likely they were successful but slowly bred into the larger Homo Sapien population over time, judging from everyone's genetics today. Caucasians have way too high of a percentage of Neanderthal for them to have been killed off. Most of their population bred in.
Interbreeding is pretty much proven.
Do you know why he thought they didn't have strong language skills and how he linked that to deception and such or was he guessing?
Because we have genetic tests nowadays, and it looks like they all bred in from the high percentages people have.
I recommend reading the book, and also I would not recommend dismissing a respected book in one sentence, but I will say that the argument is largely anthropological. that the millions of years of human existence without development into more advanced civilizations can best be explained by language and oral history. More specifically, the ability to think in abstract and communicate it to others.
Why is it probably not true? It's the simplest reasoning. Why did they have to be deceived through language or annihilated, but slightly fornicated?
> I recommend reading the book, and also I would not recommend dismissing a respected book in one sentence
Seems reading the book wouldn't help me if you read it and can't argue the points on it's behalf.
I'll ask this again:
Do you know why he thought they didn't have strong language skills and how he linked that to annihilation via deception and such or was he guessing?
“Winter is coming. Should we migrate down to the coast? Last winter, there were lots of crabs, but my dad said many winters ago there was a terrible flood that killed many of his friends. We could stay here and try to gather as much wood as we can to keep warm and try to hunt the deer. The dumb people are wandering up the mountain. It’s always cold up there. They won’t survive.”